


Salvation

by Khi0n3



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, NSFW, Past Liara/Female Shepard, Sex, Shakarian - Freeform, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-19 17:14:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3617802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khi0n3/pseuds/Khi0n3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrus Vakarian lost his best friend two years ago. Playing vigilante on Omega gave his life some meaning again, but secretly he hoped that this endeavour would end his life before long. When Shepard returns to the living, Garrus must face the reality of his feelings for Shepard, feeling he buried deep within himself long ago.<br/>Sorta alternate ME2/ME3 ish time lines.<br/>Eventual Shakarian Smut. Past Liara x Shepard.<br/>I just needed something smutty and fluffy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Archangel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I promised myself I would do the archangel recruit mission... but... I did the thing. I promise I'll do my own thing after this...

Garrus Vakarian glanced through the scope of his sniper riffle at the advancing mercs and their sub-par freelancers. He scoffed quietly, they were really getting desperate now. He guessed he counted himself lucky that thus far the Talons had stayed out of his line of fire. He didn’t particularly want to test himself against a bunch of turian mercs on top of everything else. They’d probably avoided the fight thus far due to their very public dispute with the Pirate Queen, Aria T’Loak. Either way he was thankful.

            When he had taken up his vigilante mantle of Archangel, he’d been hoping that it would be the end of him. A coward’s way out of dealing with the loss of the woman he’d once called his best friend; the only person in the galaxy he’d ever fully trusted. After Shepard’s death he’d lost all will to live. Nothing brought him joy any more. Simply returning to his life on the Citadel wasn’t an option. It was too painful to watch the council ignore the warnings Shepard had given them about the advancing reaper threat. It was too painful to watch them ignore the very thing Shepard had thrown her life away for.

            So he hoped on the first frigate to Omega and did the only thing he knew how to. Get the bad guys. It wasn’t hard to find scum on Omega. All he had to do was point his riffle and shoot. After several months of cleaning the streets of Omega, he’d found a new drive for life. He still felt empty, but at least he felt like he was doing something. Hell, he’d even built himself a ragtag team, only to have them torn away from him in a moment of poor judgment and betrayal.

            He imagined Shepard might have compared him to Batman or Ironman or some other human vigilante from those old stories she’d shared with him during the long FTL jumps between Mass Relays. Maybe that’s why he was doing this: it gave him some link back to Shepard. Bastardized as it was.

            He shot off two more rounds, taking down a Batarian merc and a human freelancer. Ducking behind cover briefly, he reload his sniper, and aimed once more. Through the scope of the sniper, he spotted three human freelancers making their way towards him. Two were dressed in Cerberus uniforms, and the third in Alliance N7 armour. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of the N7 armour, but he quickly abandoned the train of thought his mind was taking him down.

            Why was an Alliance solider fighting along side Cerberus anyways? Garrus understood very little about human politics, but he knew enough to know that Cerberus was an extremist pro-human group. There was tension between Cerberus and the Systems Alliance, meaning it was highly unlikely that they would be working together.

            But that left the next question that had popped up in his mind. Why were these humans after him? He knew from his time on the Normandy that Alliance soldiers were paid handsomely. Very few of them sought out freelance work. A soldier affiliated with the N7 program was even more unlikely to be dabbling.

            Likewise, Cerberus employees rarely picked up freelance work, as it usually involved working with aliens. That, and very few Cerberus employee ever stayed on Omega longer than they had to. Their xenophobia often got the better of them.

            Garrus fired off a few more rounds, clipping a Salarian and two more batarians before returning his focus to the three humans making their way towards him. This time his heart really did skip a beat. There was no mistaking what he was seeing through his scope. He’d never forget that flaming red hair or those piercing green eyes.

            “Shepard,” he whispered. He’d heard rumours, but he hadn’t dared hope they were true. He’d passed them off as imposters and wanna-bes  cropping up in the wave of human growth across the galaxy. However, there was no mistaking the way she moved.

            Completely in shock, he stared blankly at the advancing mercs, freelancers, and Shepard with her team of Cerberus thugs. What was she doing here? How was she even alive? He paused for a moment too long, and a bullet from one of the advancing mercs grazed his shoulder. His kinetic shield faltered slightly, but barely took any damage. It was, however, enough to wake him up out of his daze. One round fired off hit a vorcha square between the eyes. “One less to worry about,” he muttered under his breath, returning his attention to Shepard.

            A batarian merc was sneaking up behind her, his assault rifle aimed at her back. His four eyes stared at her curiously, as if he’d realized that Archangel hadn’t been firing at the three humans, when he’d been given ample time to do so. “Shit.” He muttered, and quickly swapped out his regular ammo for some concussive rounds. The rounds wouldn’t harm her or her Cerberus friends, but drain their shields. It would at least give the illusion that he was shooting at them and keep the other mercs from getting too suspicious.

            He let off two shots, one striking Shepard and the other striking the male Cerberus solider. He watched as their kinetic barriers flickered, then faltered, leaving them both defenseless. Quickly, he fired off a third, regular round, striking the batarian behind Shepard.

            Shepard and her team crossed the battlefield unharmed and disappeared from his view below the balcony he had stationed himself on. He continued to shoot down advancing mercs one by one.

            “Archangel?” came a shout behind him. He knew instantly it was Shepard. He let off one more shot killing a human merc then turned around. Slowly, he removed his helmet and sat down on a pile of crates he’d piled up against the wall to give himself more cover.

            “Shepard,” he growled, avoiding eye contact with her. He looked her up an down. She looked well for someone who was supposed to be two years dead. Other than a few strange glowing scars, she looked much the same as the last ime he’d seen her on the Citadel after the altercation with Saren. He also got a look a her two Cerberus team mates. One was a fit man with dark pigmented skin. His jaw was covered with hair he knew was referred to as a beard on humans. It reminded him of a much less permanent version of his own facial tattoos. The other was an attractive woman, or at least what he understood to be attractive by human standards. Honestly, he’d never really looked at many human women. Her face was framed by long tangles of black hair, and her dark eyes danced with a ferocity he’d rarely seen in humans. He marveled at how different all three of the humans in front him and how they were all so vastly different from one another. Unlike many of the other races across the galaxy, humans had much more genetic variation among them. Although, he understood that this variation was becoming less and less distinct, as it had with the various other races. He turned his attention back to Shepard,“I thought you were dead.”

            “Garrus! What are you doing here?” she cried out, taking a few step towards him. He felt his heart sink a little. That meant she hadn’t tracked him down. It was pure coincidence she’d stumbled upon him on this god forsaken rock.

            “Just keeping my skills sharp” he answered, emotionless, “a little target practice.” Right away, Shepard picked up on his melancholy.

            “You okay?”

            “Been better,” he admitted, then he brightened up a little, catching her eye for the first time “sure is nice to see a friendly face.” He slight smile faded from his face again. “Killing mercs is hard work. Especially on my own.”

            She smiled softly.

            “How’d you manage to piss off every major merc organization in the Terminus systems?”

            “It wasn’t easy,” he admitted. “I really had to work at it. I’m impressed the teamed up to fight me. They must really hate me.” He glanced up again, hoping that he’d gotten a smile out of his old friend.

            “Oh? Is that why you started calling yourself Archangel then?” she asked, grinning her infuriating grin.

            “Naw. That’s a name the locals gave me. For all my… good deeds. But please. To you it’s always just Garrus.” He tried to smile at her, but found that it felt empty. After everything that had happened in the last two years, seeing her standing in front of him seemed too surreal. Part of him believed the mercs had finally gotten the better of him.

            “So how do we get out of here?” Shepard asked, back to business as always.

            “It won’t be easy. I was lucky with this location. That bridge has saved my life up until now: funneling all those witless idiots into scope. Unfortunately, it works both ways…” he paused briefly as Shepard moved in closer to look at the bridge from his vantage point. “They’ll slaughter us if we try to get out that way.”

            “We can’t just sit here,” said one of the Cerberus soldiers. The one he’d noticed eying Shepard. Instantly, Garrus hated the man. He chalked that up to his affiliation to Cerberus.

            “It’s not all bad,” Garrus replied, trying to keep the venom out of his voice. “It has held them off so far. With the three of you, we should be able to hold this position until there is a crack in their defenses. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’ll have to do.”

            “How’d you get in this mess anyways?” Shepard asked softly.

            “My feelings got in the way of my better judgment. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it if you get me out of here alive.”

            “You’ve got yourself a deal, Vakarian.” She replied, grinning up at him.

            Suddenly he felt like the weight was lifting off his shoulders. Suddenly this didn’t feel so helpless.

            “Let’s see what their up too. By now they’ve realized their infiltration team has failed.” He peered through the scope. “Looks like Eclipse scouts. Here take a look.” He handed her the sniper. She let off a round, striking one of the mercs in the head.

            “Not just mercs. Looks like they’ve got their hands on some mechs now” she replied, handing him back the sniper.

            “Hmm. Well I’ll stay up here. I can do some real damage from this vantage point. You do what you do best Shepard.” He paused before adding “just like old times.” He smiled.

            “Just like old times,” she replied, smiling back up at him, pulling out her assault rifle. “Let’s do this thing!”

            He took his position, aiming his sniper at the advancing scouts, firing off rounds one after the other. He fell three mechs and a merc. He could hear Shepard barking orders at her two Cerberus soldiers as he lined up his next shot.

            “Jacob, I want you up front with me. Miranda, fall back a bit and take out as many mercs as possible using your biotics.”

            “Yes, Commander!” They both replied, and followed her back down the stairs to the main battle field. Garrus heard the bursts of two assault rifles firing on the Eclipse mercs that drew closer to his position and watched with awe as one asari went flying across the open space, only to collide with the wall and crumple.

            He shot down a few more mercs, focusing on the area where the bridge funneled the mercs. One after the other, the mercs fell. A pile of bodies and broken mechs collected at the entrance to the bridge.

            That’s when he heard the hover craft. Too late he realized what was happening, and he jumped behind a pile of crates. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to protect him from the blast. He felt the heat on his skin, burning away the flesh on the right side of his face.

            “Garrus!” he heard the call as if from a distance. Dazed and confused, he lay on the ground. This had to be some cruel joke. Finally, he’d been reunited with his best friend, and he was going to have everything ripped away from him again. He felt someone cradle his head. “Hold on, Garrus. We’ll get you out of here!”

            He heard a hailstorm of gun fire, likely from the hover craft, but never felt any of the rounds strike him. He cracked open his eyes and looked up to see Shepard shielding him with her own body, her kinetic shields taking the brunt of the force. When the assault finished, Shepard let his head fall into her lap, turned around and aimed her assault rifle at the cockpit of the air craft. She let off a few bursts which had no effect. Screaming in frustration, he watched as she gathered her strength and released an amazing display of biotics which caused the engine of the craft to explode. The craft fell from the sky. Shepard pulled him back up into her arms.

            “Edee, get someone down here now. Garrus needs medical attention!”

            Vaguely, as the world around him started to fade to black, he wondered who Edee was. When he couldn’t come up with an answer, he thought stupidly to himself, _At least I get to die in her arms…_


	2. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus is treated for the rocket he took to the face, and Shepard tries to rekindle old friendships

“Joker?” Jacob said over the coms “Have you seen the Commander?”

            “Uh yeah… she’s been waiting until Chakwas and Solus are done with Garrus outside the med bay”

            Shepard overheard the exchange as she paced outside the door of the med bay. She knew that pacing wasn’t going to accomplish anything, but it made her feel better. It made her feel like she was at least doing something. Cracking her kncukles impatiently, she continued her relentless pacing.

            Ever since she’d woken up she’d been surrounded by strangers and people she couldn’t trust. Luckily there were a few familiar faces in Joker and Chakwas. They’d had been amazing pillars of strength as she tried to cope with the reality of dying and being brought back to life. The reality of working for a terrorist agency like Cerberus.

            Going through the dossiers the Illusive man had provided her with, she knew she had to start on Omega. Something about the Archangel dossier had sparked something within her. Part of her hoped that the turian behind the mask was her turian. Garrus had been one of the few people she had truly trusted during the Saren missions. The two of them were so much alike that she never had to explain herself to him.

            To have come so close to getting him back only to have him ripped away from her…

            She wouldn’t have been able to bare it.

            “You’re wearing a hole in the floor, Commander,” came a voice behind her. She should have expected Jacob, but that didn’t stop her from jumping slightly in surprise. “We need to do a mission debrief so Miranda can inform the Illusive Man of all the details.”

            “Can’t it wait?” she grumbled.

            “Pacing back and forth outside the med bay isn’t going to make it go any faster.” Jacob pointed out.

            “And waiting a few hours until Garrus is out of surgery isn’t going to make the Illusive Man get his report any faster,” Shepard replied, “We are in FTL, we wont be able to send the report until after we drop out of FTL and are within range of a comm buoy.”

            “Yes, but the extra time will allow Miranda to accurately describe the events. Besides, Joker informed me we are 2 hours away from dropping out of FTL. Might as well get the debrief done now, and then you can return to pacing the floor.”

            Shepard growled, but stalked off towards the elevator anyways towards the debriefing room.

            In the debriefing room, she leaded against the table, to furious to meet anyone’s eyes.

            “What do you need to know?” she growled.

            “What happened on the mission?” Jacob asked.

            “Aria T’Loak directed us towards the merc groups who were trying to take out ‘Archangel’. We joined them as freelancer soliders looking for extra cash in order to get close to Archangel.”

            “Alright, then what?”

            “Fought our way to Archangel, who took out the mercs around us, avoided causing us any harm. When we reached him, we discovered he was a member of my old team, Garrus Vakarian. As we tried to fight our way out, a hover craft appeared, launched a rocket at Garrus, which caused him severe injury. I destroyed the crat with my biotics, and had Joker send transport to retrieve us. Garrus was taken into surgery by Dr. Chakwas and the Salarian doctor, Mordin Solus.”

            “Alright.”

            “You knew all of that, why did you need me to tell you?”

            “We needed it in your words.”

            “Mmhmm…” Shepard pushed herself away from the table, crossing her arms. “Well if it’s all the same to you…”

            “Wait a second, Commander. I’ve just received a message from Chakwas. She says: We’ve done what we could for Garrus, but he took a bad hit.” With that she felt her eyes grow hot with tears.  “We did repairs with surgical and cybernetics. Best we can tell, he’ll have full functionality but…”

            She heard the door open. She kept her eyes down, not wanting Miranda to see her so close to tears.

            “Shepard?” she looked up at the voice. It wasn’t Miranda. Standing in front of her was Garrus Vakarian. The right side of his face was raw with fresh wound that would likely scar badly.

            “Ha! You’re one tough son of a bitch!” Jacob commented. Shepard felt herself smile, a tear rolled down her cheek out of pure relief. Even though she wanted to close the short distance between herself and Garrus she held herself back, unsure of how he would react.

            “Nobody would give me a mirror,” he said with a ting of his old humour back in his voice. “How bad is it?” With that, he moved across the room towards her.

            “Hell Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on there… no one will even notice!” Shepard replied, trying to keep her immense relief out of her voice. With that, Garrus let out a breathy laugh, his mandibles flaring.

            “Oh… don’t make me laugh… damn it! My face is barely holding together as it is! But I’ll have you know. Some women find facial scars attractive. Granted, most of those women are Krogan…”

            “Jacob, you can leave us now,” Shepard told the soldier. He nodded, saluted and left the room. Once alone, Garrus continued.

            “Frankly, I’m more worried about you…”

            “Garrus…”

            “Shepard. I’m not going to judge you. You know I’ll follow you where ever you go. But Cerberus? You remember as well as I do those sick experiments.”

            “That’s why I need you here Garrus. If I’m walking into hell, I want someone I trust at my side.”

            “You do realize this plan has me walking into hell too? Hmm… just like old times” He gave a half smile, then grimaced, forgetting the pain the expression would cause.

            “Just like old times. But better.”

            Garrus made the turian equivalent of an incredulous expression, flared his mandibles in a slight smirk, and turned to leave the room.

            Shepard watched as he walked away, thinking to herself that she was glad to have a familiar face on the Normandy. Someone she could trust to have her back in a firefight.

            When the Illusive Man had suggested that the rest of her quirky crew had moved on, when Tail had all but called her a traitor, she thought that she had lost the only people in the galaxy she had ever considered family were lost to her. She had never dared hope that any of them would come back to her, especially none of her alien friends due to her forced affiliation with Cerberus. When Garrus had left her little crew so abruptly after the Saren mission, she figured he’d be gone for good. It had broken her heart to see him leave that day.

            Although it had only seemed like a few days since she had last seen him, she knew it had been a much more arduous two years for him. It was clear on his face from the moment he took off his helmet back on Omega.

            She leaned against the table in the center of the room, smiling to herself. If she was walking into a suicide mission, she was glad to have Garrus with her. The relief she had felt surprised her. There was no one else in the galaxy she would rather have at her side.

            Shock at this revelation, she activated her omni-tool and started typing a message.

            **To: Garrus Vakarian**

**From: Commander J. Shepard**

**Subject: Catching up?**

**I think we need to do some catching up. Once you’ve settled in, please come up to my quarters. I’ll be waiting.**

-       **Shepard**

She sent the message, deactivated her omni-tool and made her way back to the CIC. She exited into the armoury where Jacob stood at a work bench tinkering away with some guns, and slipped out into the activity hub of the Normandy. Glowing brightly in the center of the open space was a map of the galaxy highlighting their route to the nearest Mass Relay.

The members of the crew chatted idly as they went about their duties. While many of the crew were Cerberus, she had grown to like them they were all exceptionally talented individuals and she counted herself lucky to have such a competent crew on the Normandy, although she knew that Joker would never let anyone subpar on his ship.

As she crossed the floor to the elevator, nodding at crew members as they bustled passed her, she heard a ping from her omni-tool, indicating a new message had been received.

**To: Commander J. Shepard**

**From: Garrus Vakarian**

**Subject: RE: Catching up?**

**I’d love to do some catching up. I did promise to retell my exciting tale of my transformation into Vigilante. You better have some turian wine, I’ll probably need it after the week I’ve had.**

**Don’t tell Chakwas. She told me to stay away from the booze for a few days.**

**-Garrus**

            With a small smile, she punched the button to summon the elevator.

            Once in her quarters, she stripped off her heavy N7 armour, having not paused long enough to take it off. The materials of the armour were so light weight and flexible, she often didn’t realize she was wearing it. Although, younger soldiers had told her that they found the armour heavy and clunky. Perhaps she had simply grown accustom to the weight, or she knew how much worse the armour had been back in the early days of the N7 program.

            With her armour wiped down and neatly stored, she jumped in the shower and washed off the grim of Omega, and the stress of the day off her body. She was just pulling on a hoodie over a tank top when Garrus entered her quarters.

            “Shepard,” he said, hesitating slightly.

            “Garrus, I’m glad you came by,” she replied, grinning and beckoning him towards the couch in the corner of her quarters.

            “I… hmm… figured that it might be…” he started, stumbling over his words.

            “Sit down, Garrus. I want to hear everything.”

            “Ha. Not before you tell me how you fought your way out of the void! I figure you were probably to tough for the devil to want to keep you around. You’d probably have thrown off his whole hierarchy!”


	3. Painful Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard and Garrus discuss the event of the last two years. Gars struggles with his sudden interest in human physiology.

Garrus stood outside Shepard’s quarters for five minutes staring at the door. Was he really ready to tell her what he’d gone through the last two years? Was he really ready to admit the guilt he had felt after leaving the crew of the Normandy? Was he really ready to admit to feeling that he had failed her? Did he really want to let know that he had spent every day of the first six months after her death wondering if he’d been there, would he have been able to change her fate?  Did he want her to know he’d taken up a Vigilante mantle as a suicide mission so he might join her?

            He rubbed the back of his neck pacing back and forth. His mandibles flaring in frustration as he contemplated his situation. _I could just leave._ He thought to himself. _I could just message her and let her know that Cerberus clearly doesn’t know the first thing about Thanix canons and that they will require my immediate attention._ Making his way back to the elevator he activated his omni-tool to type up the message. _You’re being  coward Garrus. You don’t have to tell her everything right now. Let her know about your team. Make her think that the real reason you seem so depressed is their loss. Sidonis’ betrayal._ He turned around again, and opened the door to the captain’s quarters.

            In the hours since their return to the Normandy, Shepard had take the time to clean and store her armour in the cupboard in her quarters. The door still stood ajar, allowing for Garrus to see the armour waiting to be donned once again. He hadn’t taken the opportunity to really take a look at her armour back on Omega, having been too shocked to see anything more than her standing in front of him, but now he could see that this armour was new. There were a few scars on the surface of the new armour, but not like her old armour which bore the marks of many years of service.

            Vaguely he wondered if she kept the armour so close to her in case she had to quickly don it during an emergency. He wondered how much she remembered of the attack on the Normandy. And her death.

            He dragged his eyes away from the armour and let his gaze fall on Shepard instead.

            He’d travelled with her for several months in their quest to track down Saren, yet he’d rarely seen her out of her armour or Alliance jumpsuit. It seemed where ever she went she always had a pistol on her hip and kinetic shields. Yet, this evening, Shepard was dressed casually and comfortably. Black cargo pants and a white tank top which had lifted up slightly, exposing the soft skin of her stomach as she lifted her arms to pull on an alliance hoodie. Trying not to stare, Garrus marveled at the human physiology.

            He’d never really thought about what the other races looked like beneath their clothes, yet he found himself oddly curious. How could something so soft and fragile looking as a human or an asari or even a salarian be so strong that they could hold their own against races like the turians and the krogans with the help of only armour, kinetic shields, and a gun? How could this creature with no protective plating even survive long enough to become the pinnacle of evolution on earth?

            Of course he knew Shepard was strong. He seen her take on hundreds of geth and husks in their brief voyage together. He seen her punch someone so hard that it had broken their jaw. No doubt about it, she was powerful. As Shepard turned around, he found himself wondering what a woman as strong as her looked like beneath the armour.

            “Shepard,” he grunted, trying to make it seem like he hadn’t been standing there watching her dress.

            “Garrus!” she replied, turning to face him with a grin on her face. In that moment he couldn’t have been more thankful for the cartilage plates on his face that prevented her from seeing how much blood had rushed to his face in embarrassment. “I’m so glad you came.”

            _What the hell is wrong with me_. He thought as his heart started racing. Shepard gestured towards the couch and Garrus followed her to take a seat.

“I… hmm… figured that it might be…” he started, stumbling over his words. When did he ever stumble over his words? What was happening to him? He felt like a young boy.

            “Sit down, Garrus. I want to hear everything.” She smiled up at him politely, as if inviting him to spill the entirety of the last two year. Pausing, he felt his heart stop. What was he going to tell her? Taking a seat on the couch, leaning back and trying to act suave he answered:

            “Ha. Not before you tell me how you fought your way out of the void! I figure you were probably to tough for the devil to want to keep you around. You’d probably have thrown off his whole hierarchy!”

            “I was too much trouble,” she admitted with a laugh, “kept going on about Reapers and other nonsense that he sent me back to finish my job.”

            “So is it a permanent thing or…?”

            “He was a little fuzzy on the details,”

            “Hmmm…” the two of them laughed a bit then fell silent. The only sound for several minutes was that of the ventilation system pushing oxygen into the room

           “In all honesty though, I don’t remember much,” she answered quietly, staring off into the distance, not focusing on anything in particular. “I remember getting Joker out of the cockpit. I remember the explosion. I remember the fear when I realized my envirosuit was damaged and venting my air. I remember the cold. The dark…” she trailed off again.

            “Shepard,” Not being good at comforting people, he did the only thing he could think of: resting his three taloned hand on her shoulder. She smiled sadly up at him.

          “The next thing I remember is waking up in that Cerberus lab with Miranda yelling at me to get up and that the station was under attack.”

            “Cerberus lab?”

            “I’m not really sure how I ended up there, but Cerberus had funded a project to bring me back to life. Project Lazarus they called it.”

            “Why spend all that money bringing you back… not that I’m complaining. How did they even believe something like this was even possible?” Shrugging Shepard fell silent for another long moment.

            “Reapers I think.” She finally answered, “No one else believes the threat is real. With the human colonies disappearing, Cerberus got interested.”

            “Damn…” Garrus growled, “can’t say I’m thrilled we’re working for Cerberus, but at least they believed you.”

            “Yeah.”

            “Are you doing alright?” he asked cautiously.

            “As long as I don’t think about it,” she admitted, “having this mission to focus on makes it easier to pretend none of it ever happened. But then every day I’m reminded of the people I left behind. The people I betrayed. I’ve lost my family. They’ve all moved on.”

            “I haven’t.” he whispered. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her in for an awkward one-armed hug. Feeling her body pressed up against his sent his heart racing again. For a moment she simply leaned against him, then eventually wrapped both her arms around him.

            “Thanks, Garrus,” she whispered into his neck. When they broke apart, she smiled again. “Your turn.”

            “hmm. There’s not much to tell after that.” Garrus answered, reluctantly letting his hand fall away from her shoulder. She’d broken the contact, she wouldn’t want him to prolong it.

            “Don’t give me that bull crap, Garrus. You were the hero Omega needed! A vigilante! You can’t tell me there isn’t a story there.” She laughed.

            “Archangel of Omega. Has a certain ring to it,” he answered.

            “Stop deflecting,”

            “I got sick of the bureaucracy on the Citadel. I couldn’t sit by and watch the council ignore your warnings. I figured at least on Omega I could do some real good.” Just enough truth to make the lie sound real. “I built myself a team. Mostly people who wanted to see Omega freed from gang control. A few weeks back one of my men betrayed me and my whole squad. They all died. Every last one of them. Except the slimy bastard who sold us out. When I track him down, he better watch out. He’ll have a lot more to worry about than a few mercs. He’ll have Archangel out for his blood.” Without realizing it, he had raised his voice. His mandibles were flaring angrily, sending waves a pain through his face.

          “Garrus…” it was Shepard’s turn to do the consoling. Casually, she rested a hand on his carapace. “Anything I can do to help… you name it.”

            “Thanks, Shepard.”

            “Alright. Enough with the heavy stuff. I believe you mentioned a desire for turian wine.” 

“Mmm. I hope you didn’t cheap out, Shepard. I only drink the good stuff.”

            “So you’re a classy Vigilante. I didn’t think you’d be able to afford the good stuff on that kind of salary.”

            “Shepard. You’ve read those human stories about people like me. They are always independently wealthy and can afford what ever they want.”

            “And that’s why you’re still wearing armour with a gouge from a the rocket you recently took to the face?”

            “Naw. That’s to add character, Shepard. Honestly. Don’t you read? It makes me distinctive.”

            “Would’ve thought the scar would be enough,”

            “Naw. The armour is the cherry on top as you humans would say.”

            “Ah. I see.”

            “So you pouring that wine, or am I going to have to raid the kitchen later tonight?”


	4. Awakenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard wakes up to a surprise

Chapter Four –

              “Commander?”

              Shepard felt herself returning to reality slowly. She could hear Joker’s voice over the comm, and she was vaguely aware that he was telling her something. Through the fog in her brain, she thought to herself _It’s so warm. Do I really have to get up now?_ With groan, she rolled over towards the bedside table to peer at the clock blinking the Standard Earth Time on it’s holographic display. As she rolled, she felt something heavy slide off her shoulder. She froze. Her heart was racing. Frantically she groped under her pillow for the dagger she always kept within reach. In a clumsy movement, she thrust the dagger towards the body laying in the bed next to her. Just as the dagger reached the soft skin of the neck on her mystery guest she realized who it was.

              “Garrus?” she spluttered.

              “Well this isn’t how I imagine waking up…” Garrus grumbled. “What are you doing here, Shepard?”

              “What am I doing here? What _you_ doing here! These are _my_ quarters!”

              “Why am I in your quarters?”

              “That’s what I was asking you!”

              Shepard tried to think through the wine fog in her brain to recall the night’s events. Emotional chat where Garrus had glazed over the bulk of his story and brushed off the rest with poorly executed jokes. Wine. Laughing about old times. More wine. Bad impersonations of Sovereign. More wine. Bad singing and dancing on the coffee table. More wine… That was where it started to fuzzy. She vaguely remembered Garrus announcing that at this rate he was never going to get that damn gun calibrated.

              _“I should go,” he had said._

_“No Garrus! Stay! The party is … the party is just starting!” Shepard had slurred._

_“Shepard, there is only two of us. It’s hardly a party.”_

_“Depends on what kind of party you’re having!”_

_“Shepard you’re… you’re drunk!”_

_“So?”_

_“Shepard?”_

_“Mmhmm?”_

_“I think I’m drunk!”_

_“Well you know what they say! Don’t drink and drive. So I think you should stay here because I know you. You’ll just go try calibrating shit. And you shouldn’t drink and calibrate!” Shepard had said, sitting down on the edge of her bed and flopping over cover her eyes with her arms._

_She had felt the bed sink slightly as Garrus sat himself down beside her._

_For a long moment, they had both sat silently in each others company. Beside her, she could hear Garrus softly inhaling and exhaling, it sounded like he was purring deep in his throat._

_“Garrus?” she had whispered softly._

_“Hmm?”_

_“Can you stay?”_

_“You want me to… errr… stay?” he had asked, sounding confused._

_“Yeah. Look Garrus. You’re important to me. I feel like if I let you out of my sight too long, I’ll lose you again.”_

_“Isn’t that my line?”_

_Shepard had shift slightly to lie on her side and glance up at Garrus, who was still sitting on the edge of the bed._

_“Please?”_

_“Hmmm. Alright.” He had answered, lying down beside her, his legs still dangling off the edge of the bed, “but do you think you can handle this much turian in bed?” he had asked._

_“See, now you’re making it weird,” Shepard  had growled flopping back over on her side_

_“Should we cuddle too? I hear that’s popular among humans,” Garrus had remarked, laughing in his throat._

_“Garrus, I will make you sleep on the couch,” Shepard had grumbled._

_“Alright. I’m done.”_

_“Good,” she had muttered, and let herself drift into sleep._

              “I’d hate to interrupt a couple in the morning” Joker said over the comm, “but we’re approaching the Relay. We’ll be jumping in 5 minutes. ETA to the Citadel 30 minutes. Just thought I’d let you know.”

              “Mr. Moreau, social convention dictates that you should have made Shepard aware of your presence in case she had chosen to…”

              “Thank you, EDI!” Shepard cut the AI off mid sentence.

              “EDI, if Shepard was having intimate company over she should have tied a sock to her door. Just saying. Besides, how was I supposed to know she was into alien men!”

              “My personnel data indicates that Shepard has previously engaged in intimate relationships with Dr. Liara T’Soni.”

              “Can we stop talking about my sexual exploits?” Shepard growled. “And Garrus and I didn’t sleep together we just…”

              “Hmm… slept together,” Garrus finished her sentence for her with a tone of amusement in his voice. Shepard threw her pillow at him.

 

... tbc (sorry it's so short.. i will make it longer soon <3)


End file.
